04-15-2021, 09:28 AM
(04-14-2021, 04:18 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Sure, but also...
Carlos Dunlap
Carl Lawson
Sam Hubbard
...combined for 8.5 sacks in a total of 36 games worth of playing. I'm not saying that's an all-world DE group there or anything, but if that's all Lou can get out of a reasonably talented DE group that only missed 3 total games for health reasons, then adding more pass rushers isn't going to help much.
Even when healthy, DJ Reader wasn't tearing it up either. If you care at all about PFF, he had his worst grade under Lou since his rookie year. If you don't care about PFF, he had only 0.0 sacks, 1 TFL, and 1 QB hit in 5 games. Even if you say that none of those stats are his job, the Bengals allowed 792 rushing yards in the 5 games he was active for. That's 158.4 rushing yards per game, which would have been the 30th worst rushing defense in the NFL (compared to the 29th the finished the season at).
Throwing even more FA $ and draft capital at Lou's defense is a pointless endeavor because he won't get results with it. I also worry that the more the Bengals do to make it "Lou's guys", the more will have to be undone when someone actually competent comes in. 3 years of "rebuilding" to Lou's defense and then another 2 rebuilding to an actual NFL-level defense seems scarily close to reality.
Agree , good points even when healthy his defense didn’t look good. I get Wayne’s got hurt but in addition to having the guys you mentioned in those early games the secondary was mostly intact with Bates, Bell , Jackson and Alexander plus they wanted to keep and pay Williams all that money to be a third safety and not really use him. The other issue with this coaching staff is they have no proven track record. Taylor was a QB coach and Lou was a secondary coach. I keep hearing we’re brining in guys that fit Lou’s system and I have no idea what his system is and if it even works because he’s never ran a Defense before. Versus brining in coaches with experience I could say oh he ran this defense in this place and that worked or remember those games were Zac Taylor had a great day calling plays with the Rams as an OC. The plan didn’t make senses to me either we have an offensive minded head coach coach with a young QB and the last two off-seasons we’ve spent big on a defense that I still don’t think will be very good.
